COLUMBUS, Ohio — The federal government has told state attorneys general that it has run out of a key execution drug and is exploring alternatives, dashing states’ hopes of obtaining a federal supply of the drug. Concerns about the shortage were highlighted Thursday when Ohio executed a man with another drug never before used alone in an execution.

States including Colorado wrote U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in January asking for help in obtaining sodium thiopental. The anesthetic is used by virtually all death-penalty states, but supplies ran short when its U.S. manufacturer stopped production.

No reserves

“At the present time, the federal government does not have any reserves of sodium thiopental for lethal injections and is therefore facing the same dilemma as many states,” Holder said in a March 4 letter to the National Association of Attorneys General.

Justice Department spokeswoman Alisa Finelli said the agency had no comment. The attorneys general also declined to comment, and a Bureau of Prisons spokesman said the agency did not have an immediate response.

Holder said federal officials, including the Bureau of Prisons’ general counsel, were researching alternatives, including “any necessary changes to current federal death-penalty procedures.”

Another drug used

The immediate impact of the federal shortage of sodium thiopental is minimal. A lawsuit challenging the federal government’s injection procedures is pending, and the U.S. government has not executed anyone since 2003.

Oklahoma and Ohio have switched to pentobarbital, a surgical sedative, as an alternative. Oklahoma uses it along with drugs to paralyze inmates and stop their hearts. Ohio uses it alone.

The drug was used Thursday to kill inmate Johhnie Baston, who died 13 minutes after executioners started the injection at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville. Baston, 37, briefly gasped and appeared to grimace, but the moment passed quickly, and he lay still for most of the process.

Baston was convicted of the 1994 killing of Toledo storekeeper Chong-Hoon Mah, 53, a South Korean immigrant whose family opposes the death penalty.

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